Get lost to find yourself: how the act of purposely seeking to get lost can open you to new world of opportunities

03.12.2014

Some time ago, I made a very simple activity that literally changed my perspective on how to position myself in front of strangers, news and changes.

It was a Sunday morning, a beautiful sunny day, without thinking too much, I put a tennis and decided going walk outdoors. Initially I set out to make a “walk of the senses”, an interesting and intense exercise that I really like. But as I started walking, I thought, where am I going? What is my destiny?

And when I though about this question, I remembered a certain pattern in my way of acting against the unknown, new or changes. No matter if it was with people, places or situations.

The pattern was that on entering one of these situations, going to one of these places or knowing one of those people I always aimed to unravel the unknown, to shine a light on what seemed so mysterious and so be able to get close to that. I was always with a clear understanding of purpose and have answers.

Funny, not only for those situations, but for many other in my life, is that the understanding of a situation use to led to new questions and new understandings that would require an endless cycle where when seeking answers ends by facing more questions .

I realized I had never done anything in my life with the simple intention of getting lost, the goal was not to reach a certain place or come out with an answer, but to simply go without knowing where to end.

So I decided to do this exercise, my Sunday walk turned an exercise to get lost! I spent four hours of walking getting lost in the city.

By doing this exercise had a big surprise: By trying to get lost, I ended up by finding myself!

On the way, I was seeing scenes that reminded me of past episodes and gave me answers to some critical situations that I was encountering on a daily basis. I found street signs with names of people I should think about, I returned to my childhood, I recalled facts of my travels, I glimpsed in unrelated everyday scenes possible future desires and even had insights into different ways of dealing with current concerns.

The four hours passed so quickly that I only realized how much time had passed when someone called me to have lunch.

Since then I have tried to lose myself more often. Trying to not worry so much about things that don’t seem to make any sense, let them just go, I play with them with the simple intention of living, of losing myself in this unknown.

Passionate about people, eclectic and an idealist by nature, Gabi has always believed that anyone can get their dreams out of the dark if they simply choose to follow down this path. In 2014, Gabi decided to turn her dream into a reality and founded The Sun Jar, a movement focused on motivating and inspiring people to get their dreams out of the dark.